My sweet 9 pounder with the jackrabbit feet is already too big for any newborn sized clothing or shoes. Thankfully, the booties I knit for him stretch a little.
When these were on the needles, Ben debated with me whether a boy could wear these colors. Since then, we've decided that Henry is man enough to carry it off.
I have to finish the laces on a second pair (all blue) that I made, but he hasn't been wearing this pair very much in the 90 plus degree weather. I'll have to look for bigger pattern for some winter time footwear.

I made strawberry and whipped cream waffles for Ben's first Father's Day on Sunday. This is the first thing I've made from scratch since baby (otherwise we've been eating very well from the chest freezer that I stocked pre-baby). We had our normal Sunday routine of delicious breakfast and crossword puzzles, but this time there was a Henry at/on our table, too. We also got out for our first family hike on Sunday. It was lovely to listen to the birds, examine the wildflowers and watch the dragonflies flit by. Henry slept through it all, but we'll show him when he's ready.

We actually went strawberry picking last Saturday with a 2 week old. Ben did most of the picking while I had Henry in the sling, but it was very satisfying to do something that we would normally do without a baby. We brought a couple of quarts home--froze 2 and ate 2. Yummm....

Our 3rd wedding anniversary was yesterday, so now that our little team of two has expanded to three, we decided that it was time for Henry's first big adventure. We thought we'd take him on an educational outing, starting with a geography lesson. I'm a Wisconsin girl, through and through, and Ben grew up in Chicago, so we first gave him a tour of the state line. Since we live about 10 blocks from Illinois, I wonder which state he'll have allegiance to?

Next came Henry's lesson in sushi appreciation.

Lastly, we thought we'd introduce him to some light reading.

As you can see, he's tired from his big day, but we hope he absorbed at least a little through osmosis.

We were blessed with visits from grandparents for the first two weekends of Henry's life. First came Ben's parents here in the Midwest from California. They were here for Henry's third and fourth days, and even though he didn't open his eyes much, I think he got a good sense of his Baba and Grandma.

Then this past weekend my parents came from Green Bay. He spent enough time in Grammy and Grampy's arms, that he barely recognized Ben and I when they left.

Henry is really lucky to have four wonderful grandparents, and he looks forward to being spoiled by them in the future.

We have strict instructions to spend a lot of time skin-to-skin with Henry. Here is Ben's turn. My parents are coming to visit tomorrow, so we'll all have to put on some more clothes. Well, maybe not the baby. All of that skin is pretty delicious.

We've had a lot of people asking about how Henry is eating. If you haven't heard yet, he is a sweet, but sleepy baby and hasn't quite mastered the breastfeeding latch yet. I've been pumping for every meal since birth and we've been feeding him with a syringe and tiny tube taped to a finger. Henry gets his mouth exercise and food while sucking on our finger. When he's happy and fed, then we practice with the breast. We have also been blessed with using human donor milk for the first few days to supplement the colostrum I was pumping. This way, Henry has had the best possible start in the world.

Henry Owen was born yesterday, June 4th at 4:10pm. He weighed 9 pounds even and was 21 inches long. Ben was an amazing labor support person. Henry is still learning to latch for breastfeeding, so we are busy at home and resting as much as possible. I'll share a few pictures here and I'll just have to post more later.